Month: December 2017

So funny little story, you guys: About a month ago, I set up notifications for Panda Mic’s Twitter account because they kept announcing their first single and release events and everything, and I, an unabashed fan of this weird little kawaiicore project, didn’t want to miss out when they inevitably dropped an MV on us. Alas, they seemed to be on a codomoomental-on-steroids approach to video, and literal weeks passed without so much as a sniff of MV to promote the single.

Then they slipped it through on the day after Christmas and what’s a Maniac to do, anyway? I was too full of pudding and mulled wine and goat cheese logs to notice!

“Oh neat, amiinA has some new MVs!” I said to myself very late last night. “I bet I’ll enjoy them. I am unlikely to post about them, however!” quoth I as I tapped out a note to follow up. “Their music is lovely, but not really something to feature often.”

I mean, I run this whole rock sound thing, right? Except on Sunday, which I like to use as an excuse to show off things like HAMIDASYSTEM (mostly HAMIDASYSTEM), making space for more EDM and softer sounds in the service of that whole get-Western-people-who-like-loud-music-to-like-idols thing. Well, it’s Sunday, but … no, this is so off the chain that I couldn’t resist:

Tanaka-san really has a penchant for the dramatic, doesn’t he? A year ago, 2016 closed with the death of Bellring Girls Heart and announced yet-to-be-detailed future projects for a number of the numbers; as 2017 had its too-well-earned death rattle, of course it was time for the Aqbi family to drop a few more surprises on us.

Last week, Karin announced that she was graduating, basically effective immediately. Fans did weep. Today/tonight, she graduated/s:

Happy Bitter End of 2017, you guys! The Yearender, so to speak, is coming tomorrow; I tried to keep the hot takes to a minimum. For the current week, it’s pretty obvious that nothing much of substance was going on, and the Weekender is nothing if not a total poacher of low-substance material for your half-hearted browsing needs!

So let’s close the book on a year in idol that was neither great nor bad, often good but also often missing standout moments. This week’s Fun is doing great and you should join it. When you’re ready, enjoy the madness to follow.

In case you couldn’t tell, gang, ol’ Maniac’s been taking it easy this week on account of it being not just a slow one, but the holidays and all of that. I didn’t feel like putting too much time and/or energy into anything other than household projects, travel and other people’s horrified grimaces polite smiles upon seeing me for the first time in a while. It’s been fun!

One thing did drag me out of the woodwork for a minute, though, and it’s this little bit that you may have seen going around yesterday:

I am so learning how to knit to make that bootleg Pour Lui sweater, try and stop me.

2017 is nearly over, the Best Of 2017 festivities have been wrapped up, and I’ve been looking forward to this Fun for over a year. Yeah, it’s an obvious rehash of #2017IdolPredictions and #StateOfIdol2020, but you know what? I love those prediction-themed Funs. We can get some really hilarious entries, and as it turns out, those kinds of fun bring in people from all ends of the idol fandom. It’s almost like a holiday family reunion of its own, if the Hello! Project and 48g fandoms were your aunt and uncle, Stardust and iDOL Street were your cousins, Showa idol fans were your grandparents and whatever non-Homicidol underground group fandom exists at the moment is your distant cousin’s new husband who’ll probably get cheated on once 2018 hits. Of course I’m going to make this an annual thing! Continue reading →

This is a slightly older piece, but you’ll all have to forgive me for being glad for a few dull days in the idolverse. Nonetheless, because I sense that more than a few of you have likewise been paying about as little attention to idol as I have for the past week, you might just be getting caught up, in which case it’s worth suddenly finding out about Candye Syrup and their upcoming first EP:

Hey, I’m still feeling like I don’t want to do very much today, but let’s get the next year’s idol festivities off to a great start by … starting a week early with what might be the darkest release of the year, i.e., JyuJyu’s upcoming album. This builds on the earlier thing about downloading the re-recordings. But John has the rest of the details now.

You all know how I love my dark themed idols, so I was extra excited to hear that JyuJyu was releasing a new mini album. As a matter of fact I was so excited that I ordered it even before I wrote this piece. Lets see what we will be getting from the cursed quartet.

Oh for the love of Pete, PiGU, how long ago did you first start to show us “Bye Bye Honey”? And now you send us an MV? Diabolical.

That’s really nice though! I’ve enjoyed the song in all of its various by-membership iterations, and it sums up PiGU’s somewhat new neo-80s style very well (Roots Rock iDOL, they call it). Continue reading →